Joan Alvado

Biography:
Born in Altea in 1979, Joan Alvado has lived in Barcelona since 2005. His works have been published in media like The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, El Pais, Hurriyet, VICE, Descobrir Catalunya, 7K magazine,...
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The family of Josep (57 years old) is working in the livestock sector since centuries with a well-know brand: Cals Frares, in Aguiró, a village in La Vall Fosca. Nowadays, Josep accepts to train young students from the School of Shepherds, since he understands and share the high need of a renewal in the sector.

Xevi Crosas (33) works with his son Nil in El Serradet de Barneres, a new farm in Manlleu, Plana de Vic. Xevi was student of the School of Shepherds in 2009, and now is ruling his own farm in a cooperative with a friend and his wife.

Josep Font (32) and Anna Plana (28), are married and work together with a herd of 100 sheeps in Llesuí, a village in the Catalan Pyrenees. Anna was one of the girls studying in the first promotion of the School of Shepherds, and now she achieved to have her own livestock project. She worked as a hairdresser before.Josep and Anna carrying a “gripia” (tool to serve food to the animals) to their corral through the snow. Josep has his own job during the week but helps his wife to do heavier pastor tasks in the weekends.

Josep and Anna carrying a “gripia” (tool to serve food to the animals) to their corral through the snow. Josep has his own job during the week but helps his wife to do heavier pastor tasks in the weekends.

Sisco Baron (33 years old) was student of the School of Shepherds in 2010. Today he works in his own project with goats in an urban environment in Begues, closed to Barcelona city. Goats create security areas, preventing fires in the forests.

Marc Alvarado (28 years old), did his practices a mountain shepherd in Baguergue (Vall d’Aran). Since then, Marc works each summer as a mountain shepherd in the French Pyrenees, taking care of groups of thousands of sheeps.

Edu Balsells takes care of his livestock. Each winter, Edu is employed by the city hall of Sant Boi de Llobregat, in the outskirts of Barcelona, for sheeps cleaning the forests, in order to prevent fire.

Eloy González, closing a working day at night. His dream when joining the School of Shepherds in 2010 was to work as a pastor near Mataró, an urban environment closed to Barcelona city. Eloy achieved to find a pastor job first, and get 80 goats to start his own project afterwards. His plans are to keep working with a reduced livestock, in a sustainable way.

The School of Shepherds of Catalonia, one of the pioneering experiences in the recovery and revitalization of the livestock sector, will arrive in in March 2014 to its sixth edition. Ignoring the pessimistic voices that consider livestock death touched, the school will give again the opportunity to train young people, from predominantly urban environments, who want to learn the office of pastor.

One of the main objectives of the initiative is to provide a generational renewal in the Catalan livestock sector. It was already more than necessary: most of the Spanish rural areas have a high degree of depopulation. Emigration of the young and the consequent increase of the aging of the population are almost chronic problems there.

Aspirants to shepherd arrive from all over Catalonia, but also from other areas, such as Valencia, Aragon or Canary Islands. Most of them are young, around thirty, and attend the school by vocation. Students go through a month of theoretical training and four months of real farming practices.

The experience of the past five years show that, after this training experience, over 60% of students keep working on the livestock labor. The Shepherd’s School offers real alternatives in the sector, and it’s doing it by using innovative social coordinates as food sovereignty, ecological production, incorporation of women to grazing, direct sales, access to the own land, rural repopulation... A renewed breath of fresh air in the Pyrenees, in times of socio-economic crisis.

And the School is not an isolated experience at all. Spanish market has been increasing in both supply and demand for this type of training livestock. For many, the return to the fields is an unexpected alternative to unemployment in times of crisis. For others, it’s a way of life according to their convictions. In any case, the regeneration of Spanish rural landscape is already becoming a reality.